Le catalogage des manuscrits dans les monastères bouddhiques au Japon

Abstract

Frédéric Girard, "The Classification of the Manuscripts in Japanese Buddhist Monasteries" The present article seeks to show how a modern school of research workers appeared after the second world war with the purpose of collating documents scientifically, especially in Buddhist temples in Japan. These scholars followed a long tradition of collecting, collating, copying and compilating documents stored in monasteries, for political or cultural purposes. This group of scholars comprises philologists, historians, epigraphists, historians of art, specialists of Buddhist studies, etc. They bring inventories up to date, restore books and collections using the latest conservation techniques, produce precise catalogues, edit the most important manuscripts with detailed indexes, which are a specialty of Japan. These enterprises, under official or private patronage, permit the research workers to find their way from the ocean of documentation spread throughout Japan, especially in Japanology, Sinology and Buddhology.